Long Shot

Dir: Jonathan Levine

2019

***

In many respects Long Shot is a classic run-of-the-mill rom-com, but with some important upgrades that I hope other rom-coms take note of. We’ve seen rom-coms that explore power struggles many times before, in fact perhaps in all of them, as they always seem to follow the Cinderella story, the rich man poor girl scenario, Romeo & Juliet, Lady and the Tramp et cetera et cetera. Long Shot is ever so different in that ‘power’ is treated very differently. Charlize Theron plays the U.S. Secretary of State while Seth Rogan plays an independent and influential underground journalist. Who has the real power is up to the audience. While Theron’s character is smart, dynamic and successful you could see negatives in what she does, Rogan’s character is scruffy, idealistic and a little too quick to act - the pair are opposites in a very different way. Both have the same roots and much in common, and more importantly both have their own flaws. I like that Rogan’s character isn’t a complete idiot and that Theron’s isn’t completely inhuman. We see that the two were childhood friends at one point, Charlotte (Theron) being Fred’s (Rogan) babysitter. Set in the present, U.S. Secretary of State Charlotte Field learns from President Chambers (Bob Odenkirk) that he does not plan on running for a second term. As an ex-actor, he now sees his future in film and boasts that apart from George Clooney, he’ll be the first TV actor to make it in Hollywood. Seeing an opportunity, she convinces him to endorse her as a potential presidential candidate. Meanwhile, New York City journalist Fred Flarsky learns that the newspaper he works for has been bought by Parker Wembley (played by Andy Serkis in a fat old white guy suit), a wealthy media mogul whose ethics directly oppose Fred's. Furious, he promptly quits but cannot find another job. Depressed, he turns to his more successful best friend Lance (O'Shea Jackson Jr.), who takes him to a charity fundraising event that Charlotte is also attending. She and Fred recognize each other from when she was his babysitter. It is evident that he still has a secret crush on her from when they were teenagers. While they catch up, Wembley interrupts them to plan a meeting with Charlotte, leading Fred to condemn Wembley's actions and beliefs before leaving. Upon reading some of Fred's columns, Charlotte decides to hire him to write her speeches over the protests of her manager Maggie. Despite voicing skepticism of her ethics, Fred takes the job. At a world leaders summit, Charlotte is forced to revise a speech involving a planned environmental revision to appease some of her constituents. When Fred objects and calls her out on abandoning her morals, she changes her mind and the speech is a success. As the two continue to spend time together under the pretext of Fred learning more about Charlotte for his writing, they start to get close. Finally, after surviving a revolution in Manila, they begin a relationship together. Upon finding out, Maggie tries to warn both that the public will never accept them as a couple. When Chambers orders Charlotte to remove plans to preserve the trees, as some friends with financial interests of his asked, she lets off steam with Fred by getting high on ecstasy. A hostage crisis occurs soon after and, despite still being high, Charlotte manages to talk the captors down and free the hostage. Even though the incident increases Charlotte's approval rating, Chambers is livid when she chooses to ignore his orders and call him out. He confronts her in his office alongside Wembley, who has a vested interest in removing the trees as part of her plan. The two blackmail her with a hacked video from Fred's webcam. The hacked video depicts Fred discussing his and Charlotte's relationship and Fred further masturbating to a video of one of her speeches, the hacked video culminating in Fred ejaculating in his own beard. Charlotte shows Fred the hacked video and informs him that she has agreed to the ultimatum, and that she wants to introduce him and their relationship publicly once his image is cleaned up. Disappointed and unable to change, he refuses and they break up. Back in New York, Fred talks with Lance, who tells him that he has been too stubborn with his principles and refusal to consider other people's needs and opinions. He also comes out as a Republican to Fred’s dismay. During her announcement to run for president in 2020, Charlotte changes her mind and opts for her original plan, also revealing the blackmail from Wembley and Chambers and describing the content of the video before its release. Fred searches for Charlotte and finds her waiting at his apartment. They admit that they love each other, and meet the press outside where Charlotte introduces Fred as her boyfriend. In 2021, the couple marry and Charlotte is sworn in as the first female president with Fred as "First Mister", him having taken her last name. You kind of know what you’re getting with a Jonathan Levine movie, it has a few misses but most are forgivable. I liked Bob Odenkirk’s President. He isn’t based on any President in particular but I could see a bit of each of the last 7 presidents in him. June Diane Raphael is great in her supporting role as an adviser and Alexander Skarsgård was brilliant as the Prime Minister of Canada. Charlize Theron and Seth Rogan are great together, playing off each other brilliantly, their real-life friendship seeping into their performances in a good way. Andy Serkis’ performance is a bit strange however.Levine, Theron and Rogen, all related that after Andy Serkis accepted the role of Parker Wembley, he then developed a extensive prosthetic makeup design for the character, a makeup regimen that required hours a day to execute, even though nobody asked him to. Rogen remembered, "we offered him the role, and then he was like, 'Okay.' And then he started sending ideas for what he would look like. And we were like, 'What do you mean? I thought he kind of looked a lot like Andy Serkis.' But he was like, 'No, I got this whole thing.' And we were like, 'Whatever, man!'" I guess he can’t help it, Serkis is the motion capture/prosthetic guy. The drug humour was predictable, the potty language a little too full on and the ejaculation scene wasn’t funny. There’s Something About Mary told the same joke over twenty years ago, I’m all for recycling but not with jokes. Apart from that it’s fine. The possibilities for ‘The First Mister’ are huge, maybe they should have played on that more, maybe that’ll be the sequel, who knows, but if you want a light rom-com that isn’t the same as all the others go for this one, as it is ever so slightly better.